E 668 

C96 SPEECH 

Copy 1 



or 



HON. SHELBY M. CQLLOI, 

OF ILLINOIS, * 



OK 



RECONSTRUCTION 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 28, 1867. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1867. 



RECONSTRUCTION. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. SHELBY M. CULLOM. 



The House having under consideration the bill (H. 
R. No. 543) to provide for restoring to the States 
lately in insurrection their full political rights- 
Mr. CULLOM said: 

Mr. Speaker : The great question of recon- 
struction still excites the public mind ; it will 
continue to do so until the late rebellious States 
are all organized by proper authority into States 
republican in form. This Government for some 
time past and still presents an anomalous condi- 
tion of things ; about eleven millions of her 
people are not represented in the national coun- 
cils. It may be seriously doubted whether such 
a state of things can very long exist without 
great danger to the Republic. At the close 
of the last session of Congress I hoped and 
believed that by the time we should assemble 
here again such a disposition would be mani- 
fested by the people of the South as would 
give the loyal people of the country confidence 
that the Union which they so nobly struggled 
to maintain would soon be restored in all its 
parts. The people, as has been said by other 
members on this floor, desire peace ; they are 
longing to see the day when peace, harmony, 
and prosperity shall resume their sway all over 
the land. But, sir, as In the early days of the 
rebellion, when they hoped and believed that 
the rebellion would soon cease, so now they 
and we are disappointed. 

To-day, so far as we can see in the acts and 
developments of those rebellious people, the 
signs of returning peace and harmony are no 
more hopeful than at the adjournment of our 
last session. 

During the last session of this Congress we 



sent to the country a proposed amendment to the 
Constitution*f the United States. That amend- 
ment embodied principles fit to be made a part 
of the great Constitution, and essential to the 
protection of human rights and the perpetuity 
of the nation. This House and the country 
know well the wisdom of that amendment. 
The Legislatures of the loyal States, as they 
assemble in their respective capitals, ratify It 
one by one, and declare that they desire it shall 
become a part of the great charter of Ameri- 
can liberty. 

While the States whose sons stood by the 
flag in the late struggle for national existence 
are giving their consent to the amendment in 
accordance with the forms of the Constitution, 
the people of the late rebel States, by their 
pretended Legislatures, are treating it with 
scorn and contemjit. 

They repudiate the action of Congress, and 
refuse to favor any scheme or proposition not 
made in the interest of treason. That devo- 
tion to the flag which cost this nation so much 
blood and treasure must be Insulted by the 
representatives of the people who made the 
sacrifice, or the South will not be satisfied and 
yield a just obedience to the law. Mr. 
Speaker, I shall never insult the men in my 
district and the nation who struggled to save 
this country for the purpose of reconciling 
men who labored to destroy the nation, even 
though such refusal results in the failure to 
reconstruct this country during the present 
generation. It Is time, sir, that the people of 
the South were Informed in language not to 
be misunderstood that the people who saved 



Q-f/fi 



this country are going to reconstruct it in their 
own way, subject to the Constitution, the op- 
position of rebels to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

The constitutional amendment will be rati- 
fied by three fourths of the States in their prac- 
tical relations to the Government. It will thus 
in my judgment become apart of the Constitu- 
tion. By it the status of all persons born or 
naturalized on American soil will be defined and 
protection guarantied. Representation will be 
readjusted ; the men who have sworn to support 
the Constitution of the United States and re- 
belled against it will be deprived of the right to 
hold Federal or State office ; the Federal debt 
will be held inviolate ; the rebel debt will be 
prohibited ; and whether that fimendment be 
spit upon or ratified by the late rebellious peo- 
ple, it will be enforced in all its parts requiring 
submission — in Illinois and Mississippi, Massa- 
chusetts and South Carolina alike. 

And, sir, if that submission is not given to 
the Constitution and laws of the country volun- 
tarily, it should l)e compelled by the power of 
the bayonet. 

But, Mr. Speaker, after nearly two years 
have elapsed since the close of the rebellion in 
its organized form, we find ourselves, as before 
indicated, with this large southern population, 
inhabiting the ten unreconstructed States, with- 
out representation, and, as at present situated, 
with no apparent disposition to place them- 
selves in harmony with the loyal people of the 
country. What shall be done? Where lies 
the difficulty? Who is at fault? Shall we, as 
the people's representatives, stand still and 
fold our arms and wait for that great innovator, 
time, to work out the problem, or shall we go 
forward ? Shall we shut our eyes to the abuse 
and murders of loyal men in the South and 
the continued destruction of their property by 
wicked men and give them no means of pro- 
tection when we may? Thgjse are questions 
which we ought all to answer and act as be- 
come men capable of discharging the great 
duties resting upon us. If the statutes of the 
country are now sufficient to protect the loyal 
people of these disorganized States of the 
South from rebel outrage and are not enforced, 
it is our duty to remove the obstacle wherever 
it may be. If men, either by thfe choice of the 



people or under the forms of the Constitution, 
are placed in positions of trust and honor and 
fail to discharge their duties, the remedy is 
plain and well defined and should be applied. 
If more law is necessary let us enact it. 

Mr. Speaker, in my judgment it is the duty 
of this Congress to proceed at once and organ- 
ize the late rebellious States into States repub- 
lican in form ; but we are told that the govern- 
ments which took the place of the old State 
governments of the ten seceded States, as they 
existed before the war, are republican in form : 
and when a delegation from Arkansas wait 
upon the Executive to consult as to the condi- 
tion of things there, and inquire what they 
should do to reconstruct that State, we are told 
that our wise and astute Attorney General 
pertly tells those gentlemen that the State of 
Arkansas is already reconstructed, and needs 
no reconstruction. 

Republican in form! — governments formed 
by the Chief Executive without authority of law 
and upheld by the military power when deemed 
proper, and set aside at the suggestion of post 
commanders of military districts — these State 
governments, conceived in ignorance, brought 
forth in confusion, and rocked in the cradle of 
treason, are to be palmed upon the country as 
legitimate, and taken into the sisterhood of 
States as republican in form, with all the rights 
belonging to great States of the Union. 

Sir, Presidents and Attorney Generals may 
prate about the rights of the States and de- 
clare that those organizations are States with 
all the rights belonging to States whose rela- 
tions to the Government have never been in- 
terrupted. They may prepare vetoes filled with » 
the same stuff and send them to this Capitol 
to be vetoed by the representatives of the peo- J^ 
pie; yet, sir, the great mass of the people un- 
derstand that the Executive of the nation has 
no power to create a State, and that the cre- 
ation of a State by such hands should be set 
aside, and States republican in form created by 
the Department of the Government authorized 
by the Constitution so to do. 

It is the duty, sir, of the law-making power 
of the Government to see to it that those State 
governments are republican in form ; it is the 
duty of to-day and we must perform it. 

In the first periods of the late war the Gov- 



.^- 



ernment was careful to do-nothing to annoy 
or exasperate the rebels. The brave soldier 
went to the' field with his saber and musket to 
fight, but with them he carried the orders of 
his ranking officer protecting to the people in 
rebellion their property, including slaves. In- 
tent upon the destruction of the Government, 
the nation's kid-glove policy was turned to the 
temporary advantage of the enemy, and in the 
progress of time and events we learned that 
war, destructive, bloody war for liberty, was 
the war essential to save the nation and claim 
the respect of the world. Such a war was con- 
ducted under the changed policy of the Gov- 
ernment, the soldiers of the Union triumphed, 
and the rebellion ended. 

When we began to consider the great subject 
of the reconstruction of the rebellious States 
at the last session of Congress we counseled 
moderation and great liberality toward the peo- 
ple over whom the nation had triumphed in 
arms. A brave people always desire to escape 
the charge of want of generosity to a beaten 
foe. And then it was hoped that such a course 
would tend to encourage a spirit of loyalty to 
"^ the Government and harmony among the peo- 
ple of the different sections. If any class of 
men had a right to complain of our action that 
portion of the people of the South who had all 
through the war been true to the flag had the 
right to complain. AVhile they had given their 
strong arms and blood to save the nation, 
which had been the house of bondage to them, 
in the work of reorganizing they were passed 
by and given no voice. 

They had the right by all that is just and 
righteous to demand that in the recreation of 
the States in which they lived they should have 
/Ithe right to be heard. 

But, sir, so far as the amendment is con- 
cerned, we closed our eyes and passed them 
by, as in the beginning of the war, intent more 
upon conciliation than doing full and ample 
justice to the friends of the Government. 

As the refusal of the rebels to lay down their 
arms early in the war resulted in the overthrow 
of slavery and the freedom of four million 
slaves loyal to the Government, so will the 
rejection of the amendment by the people of 
the South speedily eventuate in the enfran- 
chisement of all those black men who but a 



few years ago were declared by the Supreme 
Court as having no rights which the white man 
was bound to respect. 

It would seem, Mr. Speaker, that the men 
who have been struggling so hard to destroy 
this country were and still are the instruments, 
however wicked, by which we are driven to 
give the black man justice, whether we will 
or no. 

By the unholy persistence of rebels slavery 
was at last overthrown. Their contempt of the 
constitutional amendment now before the coun- 
try w»Il place in the hands of every colored man 
of the South the ballot. 

Sir, in the creation of States republican in 
form in the late rebellious States all loyal 
American citizens born or naturalized on 
American soil will be allowed to participate. 
But we are told by the President and by his 
admirers upon this floor that we are disunion- 
ists, because we say that these pretended State 
governments are not entitled to representation 
in Congress, and that before their people can 
be heard here their State governments must 
be modeled by proper hands and as the Con- 
stitution requires them to be. 

We are denounced in wholesale terms be- 
cause we believe that those States should rest 
a little from the weariness of their struggle to 
destroy the country before they assume the 
weighty responsibility of legislating for it. We 
are characterized as disunionists hanging upon 
the verge of the Government, as traitors at 
the other end of the line, by that man upon 
whom the people of the country have set the 
seal of condemnation, because we 'have not 
been disposed to come here fresh from the 
people and like hungry curs do the bidding of 
a man clothed in a little brief authority, not 
by the people's votes, but by the Constitution 
and as the result of the misfortunes of the 
country. Because we do not hasten to admit 
to representation the people who have buried 
in patriots' graves three hundred thousand he- 
roes who fell in defense of the flag, and hung 
the nation in the somber garb of mourning and 
piled upon the heads of the people the crush- 
ing burdens of taxes, we are denounced by that 
man who became Vice President drunk, Presi- 
dent upon the dead body of the great martyr 
for the cause of liberty, and whose swing around 



6 



the circle was only equaled in its claims to con- 
tempt by his previous and continued betrayal 
of his party and the cause of the Union, the 
the prior support of which had secured him the 
support of the people for Vice President of the 
United States. 

But, sir, I care nothing for the man or his 
conduct, except so far as they reflect credit or 
disgrace \ipon the nation and have their influ- 
ence for good or evil. 

The President and his policy have both alike 
been condemned, and to-day there ard thou- 
sands of the men who bared their breasts to 
the bullets of the foe who are waiting impa- 
tiently upon this Congress to remove that man 
whom they believe to be, above all others, the 
greatest obstacle in the way of a proper settle- 
ment of our national dIfBculties. 

He stands there as the Executive disregard- 
ing the voice of the people who saved the coun- 
try, and that, too, when a majority in the loyal 
States of about four hundred thousand had 
declared against his policy. He played his 
hand and lost the game, and by all the ordi- 
nary rules governing the actions of men he 
should acquiesce in the result. 

He does not do so, and as he opposes the 
ratification of the constitutional amendment, 
vetoes bills sent to him by Congress, and 
{iresses "my policy," the loyal people, black 
and white, are driven out of the southern States, 
their property burned and otherwise destroyed, 
and in many instances the people are murdered 
l>y guerrillas and wicked men, and Congress is 
powerless so long as the laws are not enforced 
by loyal men. 

The ten States must be reconstructed, the 
loyal men without regard to race or color 
must control, and if the rebels do not submit 
voluntarily they must be taught submission 
by the strong, arm of power. 

Sir, a few months of proper vigor in the 
administration of this Government in the right 
way will settle this whole question, and as it 
should be. 

The people of the South are like other peo- 
ple in some characteristics at least; and when 
this Government adopts some definite policy 
and goes forward in its execution, the rebels 
and all the people of the rebellious States will 
acquiesce. Their conduct to-day is the legiti- 



mate offspring of the treachery of Andrew John- 
son to the cause of the Union, in my judgment. 
The riots and violence of the people of the 
South in great part are chargeable to Andrew 
Johnson and his blind zeal for his policy. I 
do not charge him as desiring and craving the 
results of his policy, as they developed in the 
long catalogueof crimes which have been com- 
mitted by rebels upon Union men in the South; 
but, sir, before God and the country, I believe 
that if the President had listened to the voice 
of the millions of loyal men who sustained the 
country in its most fiery ordeal, and whose con- ^ 
fidence he enjoyed up to the 4th of March,' 
1865, and had cooperated as the Executive of 
the nation with that great body of people in 
the adoption of such measures as they deemed 
wise, that to-day the southern people would be 
represented upon this floor and peace and 
prosperity would prevail all over the land. 

But, Mr. Speaker, from what motive we 
know not, he has taken a different course, and 
it is for us to do what seems best with all the 
lights and difficulties before us. 

Whatever may be the particular shape of the > 
bill finally agreed upon for the reconstruction 
of the southern States, I trust that one feature 
may be incorporated in it, namely, a provision 
giving thorough protection to loyal men ; and, 
sir, when I say loyal men I mean all loyal 
men of all grades, shades, and colors ; and, 
sir, in my judgment, there is no means of pro- 
tecting loyal black men for years to come, in 
the South except by giving them the ballot. 
I do not think it would be wise statesmanship 
to disfranchise all the men who took up arms 
or otherwise rebelled against the Government. 
I think, sir, that the leaders of the rebellion 
should be cut off from participation either iq^ 
elections or the right to hold oflice ; but there 
are too many of those who engaged in the re- 
bellion who did it because they were carried 
along by the force of popular excitement, and 
not from a disposition to destroy the Union. 
To disfranchise them all, I think, sir, would 
not be wise. Render ineligible to Federal office 
by the ratification of the constitutional amend- 
ment the great mass of the leaders of the rebel- 
lion ; cut them off from participating in the 
affairs of the country in anywise. State or na- 
tional ; enfranchise the loyal black men; pro- 



tect the weak in their support of the country ; 
place the State organizations in the hands of 
loyal men, and, sir, the time will soon come 
when these people will establish peace and 
good order among themselves. 

I shall not, Mr. Speaker, undertake to indi- 
cate the minutite of a bill such as we should 
pass, but, sir, I think this Congress is fully 
capable to develop the whole subject and per- 
fect such a bill as will be in accord with the 
Constitution, with our past action upon this 
subject, and as will secure protection to all 
the people, and at the same time, when enforced, 
v-^W'g^'iize State governments in those ten late 
rebellious States republican in form, and en- 
able the people of those States to come here 
and claim the right of representation in the 
national Legislature. 

Mr. Speaker, there are many good men on 
this side of the House who entertain fears lest 
by the passage of a bill to organize these late 
rebellious States into States republican in form 
that we shall by so doing adopt the territorial 
idea so obnoxious to many of our friends. 

Sir, I do not favor tlfe theory of dissolving 
-f<these States into Territories myself, but, sir, 
they now have no legal governments ; they are 
without representation ; they placed themselves 
in the position they occupy by their own per- 
verse and wicked and causeless rebellion ; they 
destroyed the old State governments under 
which they were entitled to representation ; 
they set up governments in the interests of 
their rebellion ; by the valor of the soldiers 
of the Union, with Grant and Sherman and 
Thomas and Sheridan at their head, these or- 
•i, ganizations were swept away and the people 
J were left without civil governments ; and now, 
s^, it is our duty to organize them — get them 
m harmony with the Constitution of the United 
States. To protect the individual rights of 



the people, to produce harmony and good order 
and prosperity among them ; and, sir, to accom- 
plish these great results I shall labor, and shall 
not stop long to quibble as to the precise man- 
ner in which those 'objects are attained. 

The blood of murdered Union men all over 
the South calls upon us to act. Union soldiers 
now in the jails of the South, awaiting trial by 
rebel courts and juries on charges of murder 
of citizens of the rebellious States while the 
soldiers were in line of battle defending the 
Government and the flag, call upon us to act. 
The millions of brave men who went at their 
country's call to give their lives as willing sac- 
rifices upon the altar for their country and lib- 
erty, three hundred thousand of whom now 
sleep in patriots' graves, call upon us to act 
wisely and quickly upon this great important 
subject. 

Sir, the two hundred and sixty thousand gal- 
lant sons of the Prairie State shall not have it 
to say that they went to the field to save the 
nation and the Union men of the South from 
death at the hands of traitors, and after they 
had done that in war that I, as one of the Rep- 
resentatives of that glorious State, shirked my 
duty in the Halls of the national Legislature, 
and those Union men after the war are left to 
be hunted down by the men with whom they had 
been contending during the progress of the war. 

Then, sir, in conclusion, let us take hold of 
this bill, and if it is in anywise imperfect let 
us perfect it, having due consideration for the 
Constitution of the country, the rights of the 
people, the future peace and prosperity of the 
whole land. And let us go forward trusting 
that, as the instruments of that great Ruler of 
all men and nations, we may yet place this 
Government upon the solid foundations of jus- 
tice, where men may live in peace and pros- 
perity together. 



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